STABBED: Aaron Gaiete knifed Charlie Kutyauripo outside a sports club in east London (Image: MET POLICE)

Aaron Gaiete, 17, knifed Charlie Kutyauripo in the heart with a large blade after reading messages threatening to “smoke” him, a court heard.

Jurors heard that the teen was terrified after Charlie put pictures of “gang signs up” on social media site Instagram in November 2015.

He told the court: “It was a picture of me. It was basically a bounty on me.”

Now Gaiete has been handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 14 years in a trial at the Old Bailey.

TRAGIC: Charlie Kutyauripo was knifed to death outside a sports club (Image: PA)

The teen “launched” himself at Charlie with a knife because “he thought he was armed” after an argument outside a sports centre in Woodford, east London.

Cops rushed to the scene to find Charlie collapsed and bleeding heavily.

Despite the efforts of medics to save the boy, he was pronounced dead in hospital at around 10.30pm on 9 January last year.

The Old Bailey heard Charlie and his killer had previously been good friends and the victim's mother said she treated Gaiete as her own son.

But they fell out towards the end of 2015 after the pair got into a row over a tracksuit.

TRIBUTES: The family of Charlie Kutyauripo pay their respects (Image: PA)

Gaiete told the court he felt threatened by Charlie, claiming was a member of a gang whose other members had beaten him up twice.

Describing the moments leading up to Charlie's death, he said: "There was verbals and I asked him what's the angle?

"And then he said yeah there's an angle. We just gave each other verbal."

Asked why he didn't run away, he replied: "I don't know, I just had to confront him."

He was found guilty of murder following a retrial as the jury who convicted him sent a note to the judge pleading for leniency.

Sentencing him at the Old Bailey, the judge said: “This is a merciful sentence.”

Lifting his anonymity, Judge Poulet told him: “It must be understood that taking out a knife in public, whether for an offensive or defensive purpose, is in itself a criminal offence.

"It is the experience of the courts that far from preventing an attack on the carrier of that knife, it frequently results in the causing of very serious injuries or, as in this case, death, and therefore the inevitable outcome following conviction is a very lengthy prison sentence for the individual who takes it out.”

STABBED: The teenager claims Charlie, pictured, had sent him threatening messages on Instagram (Image: CENTRAL NEWS)

Charlie's mother Matilda, who is an A&E nurse, said Charlie's family are “crushed and heartbroken” by her son's death after she brought him to the country from Zimbabwe.

She said: “There are no words to express the pain and agony that has no become our day-to-day life. I wake up every day hoping to see our Charlie, hoping this is going to end,”

“All I can think of and hope for is my son. No mother or family should have to suffer as we are.”